Puppet Series - The first known television puppet show aired November 6, 1931 over experimental station W3XK in Wheaton, Maryland. Bernard H. Paul was the puppeteer who brought the marionettes to life on this test broadcast. Another source (Famous First Facts) indicated that the first puppet show to be televised was a two-minute "symbolic" one-act play which aired August 21, 1928 on WOR-TV in Newark, New Jersey. It featured two puppets representing "Creative Genius" and "The Spirit of Television."

TRIVIA NOTE: The first successful children's entertainment show on television was HOWDY DOODY TIME premiering on December 27, 1947 in New York on the NBC network. The program featured freckled-faced stringed marionette named Howdy Doody. and won the George F. Peabody award in 1948 for best children's TV series. The series produced another first during its last broadcast episode. On September 24, 1960 after 2,343 programs, Clarabell the Clown (Lew Anderson) broke his silence and spoke on camera for the first time in thirteen years. He simply looked into the camera and said "Goodbye, Kids." This was followed by the cast singing one last time "It's time to say goodbye, goodbye until some other day when we may be with you again."